


Gods of War

by Know_Your_Paradoxes



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Ashen Romance | Auspistice, Blood, Blood Loss, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Dead People, Death, Explicit Language, Fights, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Gen, God Tier, Gore, Head Injury, Injury, Language, Major Character Injury, Mild Blood, Mild Gore, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Original Character Death(s), Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Serious Injuries, Triggers, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-08 18:17:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 8,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5507930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Know_Your_Paradoxes/pseuds/Know_Your_Paradoxes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When all of the possible classpects go to war with one another, who will be able to get out alive? (Inspired by another fanfic by PageOfHopes! All credit for the idea goes to her!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heir of Mind

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Game of the Gods](https://archiveofourown.org/works/473542) by [PageofHopes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PageofHopes/pseuds/PageofHopes). 



You close your eyes and pray to whatever gods are listening to you that you can get him to change his mind. You are REALLY not looking forward to dying today. You yell out, "DON'T DO THIS!", hoping that your position as the Heir of Mind can do anything to help you. You haven't been much in tune with your classpect as of late, but you know enough about it to know that it should make you able to manipulate this guy into NOT killing you.

You've been protecting the Sylph of Life for a while now. You're not exactly sure how you feel about her yet.

But that doesn't matter now. Because you're fairly certain that you're going to die without ever even telling her how strangely you've been feeling about her.

He's just about to launch his ax into your skull, but he stops. "And why the hell should I?" he asks, with nothing but cold, quiet anger. You gulp as you meet his steely gaze. You've never been more afraid in your entire life.

"Because... because I love her!" you yell, without having put much thought into it.

Looking back on it, you wonder if maybe it's true. You don't really care much about it at the time, however. You're much more concerned with actually making it out of this attack alive. Whenever you look back at her, she seems both scared and also a bit taken aback by your sudden confession of affection. You really can't blame her for this scenario, if you're being completely honest with yourself. Your mouth can get you in all KINDS of trouble.

"I'm sorry, kiddo, but I'm gonna need a better explanation than that," he replies, his voice quiet and low.

You sigh. "If we lose the Sylph of Life, then we pretty much lose one of the best, if not just THE BEST, healer that we've got. Which means that classes like you, sir, as the Prince of Space, may never have a single CHANCE of healing once you get hurt. Sure, you might have another Life player on your side, but... let's be honest with one another. You're kind of an asshole that doesn't really deserve it."

There's nothing but silence. You can see the Prince actually thinking about this. Maybe you've gotten through to him. Or maybe you've simply delayed the inevitable.

His grip on the ax loosens, and you can tell that there might be something going on in his head. You're just glad that you actually managed to come up with a better point in your argument than "BECAUSE SHE'S THE LOVE OF MY LIFE AND I WANT HER TONGUE TO WRESTLE WITH MY TONGUE FOREVER AND EVER."

The Prince sighs. "Whatever. I've got more important things to deal with right now. I'll come back for you two."

And with that, he takes his leave, tightening his grip on his ax once again, setting off for more unfortunate souls to steal.

The Sylph looks at you, much less fearful than before. "Well, whatever the hell you did, it sure worked. I'm just glad it did. By the way, did you really mean what you said about loving me? Because... I mean... we haven't known each other long."

You feel a blush coming on. "Uh... did you notice that? I wouldn't look too much into it, I was kind of in a panic..."

"Really? Because... I don't know... I might have been forming a flush crush on you..."

Oh, right. You almost forgot that she was a troll. You supposed that maybe you didn't even notice because you were trying to help her out. There was also the whole thing of your crush on her as well. But you digress.

"Uh... well then... don't ignore it? I guess?"

The Sylph gives you a small smirk. You can feel your spirits lift a little. Maybe you have a chance at this whole "matesprit" thing after all. Or maybe you'll get yourself killed before anything ever happens.

Either way, that smile feels like a promise.


	2. Seer of Blood

You're honestly surprised that you've managed to last this far.

Your stupid aspect is just knowing about relationships. You've probably got some of the dumbest powers in the entirety of the battlefield, but at least they've seemed to serve you well.

You've already developed an alliance with the Sylph of Life. You're pretty good at manipulating people. You suppose that maybe this whole "relationship" power isn't completely horrible. After all, you've got alliances with a lot of people. You've got a fairly good understanding of your Aspect. You don't have any enemies that you know of.

Oh wait. The Prince of Doom.

Never mind.

You've suddenly felt a chill up your spine. You don't know what it could possibly mean, but you know that whatever it is, it isn't a good thing at all. Maybe you're... you're SCARED?

That's impossible. You weren't even scared when you got attacked the first time. This is stupid. You have much more important things to do. Like focus on your alliances. Making sure that the truces aren't broken.

And stuff.

Yeah.

But as you feel the chill getting stronger, you can't help but wonder if maybe you SHOULD be afraid. Maybe there's a good reason why you're getting so worked up right now. You never get nervous without a good reason.

And then you feel a sharp pain bursting into your shoulder.

You've just been shot. You feel sick to your stomach. Another sharp pain hits you straight into your lower back.

"Ha," you manage to breathe out, through the excruciating pain. "You still can't aim for shit."

You hear the sound of the ground crunching underneath his feet. Once he's in front of you, you can see the inside of the barrel of his rifle. "Fuck you. I'm so glad that I'm the one that gets to watch you bleed.

"After all, you're the Seer of BLOOD, right? I'm just making it so you live up to your title."

Another sharp pain hits you right in the eye, and a millisecond later, everything goes black.

There's no sound. Just black.

Like your relationship with the Prince of Doom.


	3. Bard of Heart

You destroy souls. That is simply what you do.

And that is what you have done. To yourself, to others, and to her.

You really did appear to have red romantic feelings for the Mage of Light. It was actually quite amazing. You had no idea you could feel that way about ANYONE. And you did, for a while.

You tried, really hard.

But you supposed emotion just wasn't suited to you.

She was a great person, and you knew damn well that what you were doing to her wasn't right.

But that didn't stop you, now, did it?

Goddamn, your leg hurts. It hurts like hell. You can't believe that she did this to you. After all you've done for HER? She should've been grateful.

But you suppose that the Maid of Mind WAS always your kismesis. She's never particularly liked you much, but she didn't have to break your fucking LEG over it. THAT was just rude and uncalled for.

You can't focus on the pain, however. You've just got to focus on getting through this war right now. There's nothing more you really can do. If you want to make it out relatively unscathed, you have to keep your eyes on the prize. The prize being life, you presume.

You hear rushed footsteps behind you, and you wonder who in the world it could possibly be. Maybe it's her, the Maid. Maybe it's the Mage. Either way, you're probably fucked if you so much as turn around.

A voice calls out, between heavy breaths, as they keep running. "YOU'VE GOTTA RUN RIGHT NOW!" yells the voice. That's strange. They don't seem to sound female, but they don't sound male either. Maybe you're just not listening to the voice well enough. Then again, their voice could be drastically different, as they're currently running away from something (or someone) that they presume to be dangerous, and are probably panicking super hard right now.

You decide to heed their warning, running as fast as you can. "WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE RUNNING FROM?" you yell in reply.

"DOES THE MAGE OF LIGHT RING A BELL?" the person asks. Upon closer inspection, you see that they're a Breath player.

You feel a chill run up your spine. "YEAH, WE GO BACK PRETTY FAR," you respond.

Well, at least you're not lying.

Suddenly, there's a female voice that sounds like it's right in your ear. "I'd say we do, Bard."

Fuck, you knew that the whole leg situation would come back to bite you in the ass.

Next thing you know, you can see a sword going through your torso. It feels like a dream. Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt nearly as much as your leg does. Maybe it's just because of the rapid blood loss? Or maybe it's just because you've become so numb to this sort of pain that this is just par for the course now?

Either way, it doesn't particularly shock you.

You can practically see the spades in her eyes.


	4. Witch of Void

You're just glad that you've never had a problem with appearing invisible to others.

It would take a very skilled Light player to ever find you now. You're a very powerful person, and you know that well. You're starting to get more and more confident about your chances of surviving with every second passing.

You have no idea where your moirail went. For all you know, they could be dead right now. They could be alive and trying to find you and kill you. They could be yukking it up with some human celebrity in Cancun. You don't know, and right now, if you're going to be completely honest with yourself, you don't care. You realize how heartless that sounds, but honestly you'd rather not deal with this today.

The Thief of Heart. You almost miss them. (You remember very vividly that they prefer they/them pronouns, but they were born a female human, and their female-born identity is probably why they were assigned as being a Thief.)

Your moirail was one of the only people that were keeping you from completely going invisible.

And now that they're gone, you can't help but do your best to remain hidden.

Oh fuck the Page of Mind you forgot that he was still a thing and that he was in cahoots with some of the Light players you've made a terrible decision YOU HATE PAGES YOU HATE PAGES YOU HATE PAGES YOU HATE PAGES YOU HATE PAGES YOU HATE PAGES YOU HATE PAGES YOU HATE PAGES YOU HATE PAGES

You can hear him coming. Unfortunately for you, you can also see that he has a Light player with him.

"Hey, Aureli!" you hear him call out. That's the Light player's name, from what you presume. You can't think. You want to scream. You can only hope that maybe Aureli's power isn't strong enough to expose you.

"Do the lighty thing!"

And then you see a bright flash of light, even from behind your closed eyes. You're sure that if your eyes had been opened, you would've gone blind.

Aureli's an Heir. You're so fucking screwed.

You can hear the Page of Mind laughing. You can't believe this. What a fucking douche.

You wish you'd picked a better kismesis.

"Thanks, Aureli! Now watch as I tear this bitch to shreds."

He smirks as he begins to channel his mind-field. It's simply impossible to resist his control.

You can hear his own thoughts in your mind, and his thoughts are quite similar to yours.

And then you can feel your hands clasping around your own throat. Fuck, you had never known that you were that strong before.

Your vision slowly begins to fade, until he suddenly stops you. You gasp for air, finally being able to get more into your lungs, for the first time in maybe three minutes? You can't tell, and you don't fucking care.

Something tells you that he's simply delaying the inevitable.

You notice that you're not invisible anymore, as he grabs you by the chin. He has a cocky grin on his face. You wish that you could wipe that stupid grin off his face. "Aww, you're cute when you're on the brink of death. Did you know that?"

"Fuck you," you manage to breath out. From out of the corner of your eye, you can see Aureli barely holding in laughter.

"Unfortunately, you won't be alive long enough to do that. It's a shame too. I was always hoping that our kismesissitude would end up actually going somewhere."

You hate him so much, but at the same time, you know there's an underlying love of hating him.

And he kisses you and only confirms your suspicions.

At least you'll be dead soon.


	5. Seer of Space

You see everything. You see every single session. Every single player. You know exactly who all of them are.

It feels like all of them are out to get you. You're still not completely sure if they aren't all conspiring against you. You wonder how much worse your odds would be if everyone was all involved in this fight.

You silently thank all of the deities you can name off the top of your head that you're not fighting every single player at once. That would be a clusterfuck of horror.

Something seems off about the world, however. You can't quite put your finger on it. Not everyone seems willing to kill one another here. You could sense that almost immediately. There are at least two players from the same session here, and neither of them want to kill one another. They've been best friends since before they even began to play SBURB. You feel especially sorry for them.

You cannot even pretend to know how to comprehend troll romance, but if you were to deduce their relationship, you would put them as moirails, more than likely. Either way, it seems that the Witch of Hope and the Heir of Blood aren't going to last much longer.

And neither are you, if you keep standing around. The Page of Doom is in hot pursuit, and you don't want to get caught in his crossfire.

You're at least 83 percent sure that that fucker smells fear.

But you can't afford to keep thinking at this rate anymore. You can see where he is, and you're laser-focused on getting the hell out of dodge. You keep running as fast as you can, but suddenly you realize something fascinating.

You can fly.

Yes. Hell yes. Hell. Fucking. Yes.

Wait, you already knew that. This is STUPID.

You keep floating away from him, making sure that you aren't within the boundaries of his Doom shield thingy. Whatever the hell that thing is even called. You're not 100% with the terminology, but whatevs. This kind of arena spectator sport doesn't really require a knowledge of much in the SBURB world. Y'know. Since only one person is going to make it out of this session alive.

And it sure as hell won't be you if you keep thinking about this shit.

After all, you've got the Page of Doom in hot pursuit of everything, and you've also got the Maid of Rage coming at you. (You want to smack yourself for immediately calling her Cleo after thinking "CLEOPATRA, COMIN' AT'CHA".)

You turn your eyes to the skies and wonder what you should do. As the Seer of Space, you should be able to get a response from space, right?

Wrong.

Turns out that your call to the heavens went straight to voicemail. Or better yet, you pretty much texted them and they responded with a poorly spelled "new phone, who dis".

So you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. (No pun intended, since the Page of Doom seems to have a murder-boner right about now.)

Well, you were pretty damn sure that you weren't going to win this anyway.


	6. Thief of Breath

You're about to take everyone's breath away.

You've been working on that one for a while now. You're always looking for ways to improve yourself, and you figured that you may as well start with the awesome one-liner. Damn, you're impressed with yourself.

Sometimes you wonder why your genius tends to go unnoticed.

Either way, your moirail, the Witch of Light, seems to be the only person that appreciates you. She has this strange thing where she crinkles up her nose when she smiles after you share one of your fabulous puns with her. Her smile is a thing of wonder, and her laughter rings from everywhere. You don't even care that she's a troll, which would normally weird you out.

Okay you may or may not have feelings for her simply because she is the only person that has ever seemed to care or notice that you're making an effort to actually be a cool person to hang out with.

But you would never admit that to her. You would never do that. That would be akin to committing friendship suicide. And that is not something you want to live with for the rest of your life.

Maybe you love her.

Whatever. That's fine. You don't care. You're chill about it. You're down. You're smooth. You're... hip with the other kids.

Alright, you decide that you're going to call it what it is and admit that you're extremely socially awkward.

You didn't mind it much at first. You were actually kind of glad that you had been able to keep yourself quiet and reserved. You had been an awfully shy child even before you had developed the anxiety you have now, and you were glad that you weren't expected to interact constantly like the other kids did. You had maybe two close friends up until sixth grade and you were totally fine with that.

But after sixth grade, on the other hand...

You don't even want to talk about it.

Something tells you to turn around. Your anxiety is starting to act up again. Someone you haven't crossed paths with yet.

You turn around on one foot, trying not to look at them directly. You wonder if maybe laying low is a good thing in this competition. If it is, then today must be your lucky day.

The person standing in front of you has murder in their eyes, though, as you find out once you make eye contact.

You immediately turn back, trying to get away from them as fast as you can. You're glad that being a Breath player can result in you being able to fly. (Well, in your case, being a Thief, it's not exactly so much as flight as it is very distant hovering.)

Something compels you to try and steal their movement from them. You wonder if you can do that. You're not even sure. You've been able to paralyze small objects, such as the random stone ball the Prince of Life had thrown towards you.

But stopping something like an entire PERSON? You're not sure if that's within your capabilities.

You didn't have to PARALYZE them, per se. You COULD just steal some of their speed and make it your own. You COULD just steal their speed and make them really slow. Or, you could only temporarily paralyze them. You didn't have to make it permanent.

You look around you, for anything that you can see moving around, just to give you a small boost. And that's when you spot her.

The Witch of Light.

"HEY!" you yell, at her direction. She hears you and turns her head, confusion prominent in her eyes.

She yells back, "HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"MY BUDDY, THE PAGE OF BLOOD OVER HERE, IS TRYING TO GET ME FUCKING KILLED RIGHT NOW! BUT YOU KNOW, IT'S CHILL! IT'S WHATEVS! JUST KEEPING IT ON THE DOWN LOW. THE DL. GOOD OL'... I'M SORRY, I'M RAMBLING, I'M KINDA PANICKING A LITTLE BIT."

You can see her giggling at you even through her movements, and once she's done, she flashes you the brightest smile she can muster. "NO WORRIES! I'LL JUST MANIPULATE HIS LUCK A LITTLE AND MAKE YOU INCREDIBLY LUCKY! I'VE GOT THIS!"

You're not exactly sure if she does "got this", but you trust her wholeheartedly. She's rarely wrong in deciding what's best for you. After all, she IS a troll, and she knows more than you do about what moirails should do for each other. You really WISH that you weren't just moirails, because that's just a fancy term for best friends, but you're happy with what you've been given. After all, you suppose that things could be MUCH worse. You're still in one of the good quadrants, which is always a good thing to be in. At least you two aren't mortal enemies.

Speaking of which, you watch as she closes her eyes and focuses onto the Page. They suddenly run into a tree. You're not sure what's going on, but whatever it is, you like it.

You turn to face her, and give her the biggest grin you can manage while still fearful for your life. "YEAH!!! NICE ONE! NOW, IF YOU COULD JUST MAKE ME A LITTLE MORE LUCKY, THAT WOULD BE GREAT!"

She nods and then closes her eyes again, this time, focusing on you. You feel yourself beginning to levitate slightly higher than before. This was much higher than you could've gone as a regular old Thief of Breath. She's definitely doing SOMETHING right.

However, you don't really know how to get back down.

"HEY!" you yell, from above her. "CAN YOU MAYBE BRING ME DOWN A LITTLE BIT? I KINDA NEED TO STAY CLOSE TO THE GROUND IN ORDER TO GET DOWN!"

But she doesn't seem to hear you. She continues her focus, as you keep getting higher and higher. You feel sick, thinking about how bad it would be for you to fall right now. You've never been one for heights, believe it or not.

You close your eyes, too. You can't bring yourself to look around anymore. The sudden thinness in the air is enough to make your head spin. You're not exactly sure what she's even doing at this point.

And then, in the blink of an eye, you're falling.

Within another blink of an eye, you hear a sickening crunch. A searing pain rips through your entire body. You don't even have to look down at your crumpled bones to know that she's betrayed you, and she's going to kill you. All the same, you bring yourself to strain your neck as much as possible, in order to assess your wounds. Even if you DID manage to survive through this, you'd more than likely be paralyzed. Your legs and arms are contorted to brutal angles. Jesus, you feel sick.

And then you hear footsteps, coming up to you.

You lift your neck as much as you can, in order to stare her in the eye one last time.

"I'm so sorry..." she begins, with visible tears running down her eyes. "But... I have to win..."

She continues moving closer, until she's behind you.

The last thing you saw before fading away was her closing her eyes, focusing on you again, and the girl you once loved removing any chance of survival you might have had.


	7. Sylph of Time

You hate this situation so much.

As a Time player, you've never been one for optimism, but right now, while everybody's desperately murdering one another, you're pretty desperate for the old cliche of holding hands around the campfire and singing "Kumbayah".

Being a Sylph, you have the magical ability of healing time.

Which doesn't sound very appealing given the circumstances, but you digress.

It might not seem like the best power to have in a death match against others with powers like destroying souls, stealing other people's lives, or the ability to manipulate other's minds, but having the ability to heal time is actually better than it sounds.

For example, your girlfriend (you love using that word), the Witch of Breath, could have died long ago. However, you've been making sure that you use your powers as often as possible to ensure that in the alpha timeline, she DOESN'T die. You love her way too much to let her die in this stupid, brutal arena death match. She is currently the only person that you would even CONSIDER using your powers on.

You wish that she didn't even have to be here.

Wait...

HOT DIGGITY DAMN YOU FORGOT THAT YOU COULD FIX THAT TOO WHAT A HAPPY COINCIDENCE.

So, you close your eyes, channel all of your power, and rewind yourself until you're at the moment where you tried to convince her to play SBURB with you.

And, a simple take-backsie fixes that problem right away!

You've never felt more proud.

Although, you wonder who the new Witch of Breath will be, now that your girlfriend isn't the one participating in this stupid Hunger Games ripoff.

As you look around, the prospects of the Witch of Breath even EXISTING in this new timeline are getting bleaker and bleaker. You haven't seen ANY Breath players for the longest time. You'd seen the Thief, but you're pretty sure that you had heard him screaming in agony not too long ago, so that kind of settles that one, now doesn't it. And you haven't really had the chance to MEET any other Breath players, since you mostly just stuck around your lady love.

But yeah. You've now managed to save her, AND you probably haven't doomed the universe. That's a pretty solid point in the "you" category.

Whatever. You're pretty sure you just saw a blur of unmistakable blue pass by, and you're ready to have some fun.

You continue chasing after the Breath player, eager to make out their class. You dearly hope to meet the new Witch arrival.

As you continue to chase them down, you can just make out the long twin tails on the hood of their God Tier pajamas. You know from this alone that this is the new Alpha Witch of Breath.

You can't control your panting as you yell after them, "HEY! STOP! I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU!"

The Witch finally slows down, until they eventually come to a halt. You're grateful for this, because goddamn, if Sylphs weren't made for running.

You keel over, trying to catch your breath, as you sputter. "Holy shit... you're really... fucking... fast... I'm the Sylph... of Time... I wanted... to make an alliance... Jesus fucking yellow penguins this is hard... how do you... even RUN that fast..."

The Witch turns around and faces you.

Your heart sinks into the pit of your stomach.

"How?" you ask, in sheer amazement.

It's your girlfriend. You hadn't managed to save her at all.

Her eyes are fearful as she finally speaks. "Wait... Lara? How... how did you get here? What's going on? All I remember was us getting into a big fight because I thought you were being selfish with your game, and then Gabe managed to get me a copy of SBURB, so that I could play too, because you talking about it had made me really interested, but I didn't..."

You can't believe this. How could she have EVER thought that you were being selfish? Everything you ever did, you did for her sake. And she fucking KNEW that! She FUCKING KNEW THAT.

You shake your head. "How the fuck did Gabe get a copy of SBURB? I thought that it was a limited pre-release. I never saw him buy a copy..."

"I don't really care about him right now! Are YOU okay?"

You keep shaking your head. The denial is strong within you right now. You're MUCH more concerned about how GABE got a fucking copy of SBURB and managed to give it to her. You always knew that he had been scheming to take her away from you, and...

You had given him the chance.

In going back, you accidentally gave him the one chance he had to take your girlfriend away from you.

"Wait, wait, before we start talking about that... are we... are we still together?"

She has a confused expression on her face. "Wait, since when were we ever together? Me and Gabe are together right now."

No. No no no no no no no no no no.

"NO!" you yell, feeling the tears in your eyes finally start to spill. You collapse to your knees, unable to do anything else other than cry and scream. How had one little take-backsie constituted an entire change of heart? You had been in love! There was no way that just one simple change was going to ever affect how much she cared about you! There was no way that she could've just turned her back on you like this! There was no way that she should even BE here!

"Lara, please, calm down! If you keep screaming, you're going to alert people to our location, and then we're both going to get massacred!"

"I'M NOT GOING TO FUCKING CALM DOWN! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? WE HAD BEEN IN LOVE! I STILL FUCKING LOVE YOU, SKYE!"

She puts her hands on your shoulders and you look up at her, into her kind, understanding, somehow strangely icy blue eyes. "Lara, please... just calm down and tell me how everything happened."

So you tell her.

You tell her everything. You tell her about how you managed to confess your feelings to her, and how she had agonizingly made you wait until she formulated a response to your question, and how she had made you the happiest you had ever been when she said that she would try being your girlfriend. You tell her about how you two fought against other players in the arena, and how she had severely injured the Bard of Hope, and how you two had had your first kiss while inside your makeshift shelter for the first night there.

And she listens.

"I'm so sorry about everything, Lara. Please, if you don't believe anything else I say, believe that. But... if I'm going to be truly honest with you...

"I never really saw you that way."

You can't believe what you just heard.

"Is it because of Gabe? Is HE the reason why you can't say that you love me? Do you REALLY have feelings for HIM, either? Can't you see that he's been an asshole to me all this time because he wanted to get with you? Don't you see how rude he really is?"

"He's not rude to me. I really do care about him a lot. He's been nothing but kind and considerate to me while we've been going through our own SBURB session, before we got sent here for whatever the hell this is. He showed me how to play the game, and he cared a lot about me. And now I'm here, and he's probably so scared, since I never got the chance to ever tell him where I was! Goddammit, Lara, I miss him so much-"

"SHUT UP!" you yell. "HE WILL NEVER LOVE YOU THE WAY THAT I LOVE YOU!"

"HE'S THE ONLY PERSON THAT I KNOW HAS TRUE FEELINGS FOR ME! I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF YOU HAD TRUE FEELINGS FOR ME! I CAN'T FUCKING REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE TOGETHER, BECAUSE YOU FUCKED UP THE TIMELINE! YOU HAVE NO ONE BUT YOURSELF TO BLAME!"

"I ONLY DID THAT BECAUSE I THOUGHT THAT IT WOULD SAVE YOU FROM BEING HERE, SKYE!"

She's reduced to stunned silence.

"I... I thought that if I went back and took back my desire for you to play the game with me, it would prevent you from ever playing the game, so that you wouldn't ever have to be in this situation... because I never wanted you to have to fend off people that wanted to kill you. I never wanted you to have to fight for your life. I never wanted you to experience something as horrible and terrifying as this. I love you too much to ever have to bear the thought of you dying here..."

Skye has tears in her eyes now, and you can see that some of them have run down her face while you were giving her your reasoning.

"You didn't have to do that, you know."

She walks up to you and hugs you, and you don't have enough time to try and push her away from you. "Fuck, you've always been really stupid."

You manage a laugh.

"I'm really sorry that I fucked everything up. Can you please forgive me?"

She nods against your shoulder, and you know that everything is going to be okay from here on out.

Until you hear the sounds of someone yelling in the distance.

Skye pulls away abruptly, and your grip is just strong enough to keep a hold of her waist. You look into her eyes, and they're fearful once again.

"Lara, you should run."

"What? No! I'm not going to just leave you here to die!"

Another tear falls down her freckled cheek as she says, "I love you too much to ever have to bear the thought of you dying here..."

Even though you know she doesn't mean it, you take her advice, and head off in a sprint, as fast as you can. She tries to catch up with you, but you hear her yell as she falls to the ground, and moments later, you hear a stifled scream.

The voice sounds a lot like Gabe's.


	8. Maid of Doom

You are literally MAID of Doom.

That is quite possibly the most badass thing you could ever say about yourself.

But that's partially your fault, as you're the person that made yourself who you were, and that judgement of character was what made you become your God Tier. You have nobody else to blame for your situation.

Maids, being those who "provide themselves with" their aspect, are pretty useful when it comes right down to it.

EXCEPT YOU PROVIDE YOURSELF WITH DOOM. GOOD JOB YOU YOU'VE MANAGED TO SCREW YOURSELF FROM THE GET-GO.

The Bard of Light is pretty pissed at you right now, and you're pretty pissed at them, too. So right now you're running. That's all you really CAN do.

Your moirail, the Heir of Time, is alongside you, with a smile on his face and a pep in his step. "What's got you all excited?" you ask him, with an eyebrow perched. You've never seen him look this positively giddy. He acts like he's just found out that he won the human lottery.

Or whatever that is.

"Well, I mean, I met the Mage of Blood earlier, and I think I've got a bit of a flush crush. So forgive me for being a little more lighthearted than usual. Should I be more like the broody Time player I was before? Will that make you care about me?"

You roll your eyes. "Whatever. Like you can get any MORE broody than a fucking Doom player. I've got you beat."

He shrugs. "You've got a point. Especially you, fair maiden."

"Fuck off," you retort, feeling your red vacillation come back to bite you. Dammit, why can't you decide just to be his moirail and call it good? You really wish that you could stop feeling red for him. You SHOULD be fine with the pale quadrant. You SHOULD be, but you AREN'T.

He playfully pushes you on the shoulder, and your heart flutters a little. Why must you be so susceptible to matespritship?

Anyway, you can hear the Bard of Light yelling at somebody right now. That stupid human is pretty pissed off.

You think you hear the name "Skye" slip from his lips.

Whatever, no time to discuss that matter. What matters is that you're going to RUN. You're going to run until you can't feel your legs anymore, and then you're going to keep running, because dammit, if you're not going to survive this stupid death match.

The Heir follows you, a sly smirk creeping on his face. "If we get Ryan to take our side, we can probably make really good use of his powers," he yells.

You furrow your brows, in confusion more than anything else. "WHO THE FUCK IS RYAN?" you ask.

He acts like he's just made a startling revelation, and replies. "Oh, shit, I forgot that I hadn't told you his name yet. He's the Mage I was talking about. You know? The hot human? Tall, dark, and sarcastic as all get-out? Yep, he's the person I'm pretty sure I'm meant to have sloppy interspecies makeout sessions with for the rest of time. And, as you know, I have a lot of knowledge about time."

You roll your eyes again, trying to hide your disdain for the way he makes "Ryan" sound. "Listen, Nuadha, I appreciate you getting all sappy and romantic over your human flush-buddy, but we really gotta focus on our survival right now. If you know where the hell he is, then by all means, show me the way! But if you don't, then we need to get the hell out of dodge, and find him later, alright?"

He nods. You're pretty sure that he won't know where the fuck "Ryan" is anyway, because everyone travels everywhere, and they never stay in one place at one time, because reasons.

"Well, hopefully I'll get to see him, in due time. After all. Time is on my side."

"Stop with the stupid time puns!" you yell, whilst laughing.

You have to admit, even though they're corny as hell, you appreciate the puns nonetheless.

You don't hear the Bard trying to come for you anymore. That's comforting, at the very least. But you keep high tailing it out of there, just to make sure. The last thing you need is a destroyer class to be pissed off at you.

Suddenly, you hear Nuadha trying to yell something at you, but you're cut off because you run into something.

Not someTHING. SomeONE.

"Whoa, watch where you're going," the person says, a low, smooth as butter voice piercing the air.

You look up to find a relatively handsome-looking human. Their green eyes pierce you, and you can feel the flush-crush forming even before it finally settles in. Your pupils have practically transformed into hearts at this point.

Nuadha smiles and says, "What a lucky coincidence, Ryan! You were just the person we were looking for!"

You shake your head, full of disbelief. THIS was RYAN? The guy that Nuadha had been gushing about nonstop, the guy that had made you want to punch him, the guy that was in the way of you and Nuadha's potential matespritship?

And you had red-rom feelings for HIM, TOO?

Fuck troll romance.


	9. Bard of Light

Your name is Gabe, and you absolutely loathe Sylphs.

For context, Lara Prattle had always been in the way of you and the girl of your dreams. She had constantly been trying to take Skye away from you, and you weren't going to stand for it any longer.

So, you had decided to accompany them in their game of SBURB, if only for the chance of getting to kill Lara with your own bare hands.

(Not really your bare hands, what with your Dicekind abstratus kind of getting in the way of that.)

And then you watched as she and Skye's relationship began to bloom. Sylph of Time, and Witch of Breath. You can't believe that matchup even worked! You had researched all you could about the possible God Tiers, even going to fucking TUMBLR for that bullshit, and you couldn't find a single piece of evidence that would suggest that Sylphs and Witches would work together in a relationship. (Although you kept getting shitty results for matespritships, something you had no fucking clue of, but you assumed they meant something close to human relationships, because the descriptions treated them like human relationships, basically.)

You couldn't even find anything that would suggest that Time and Breath players worked together!

But you'd found a few things that suggested that Bards and Witches go together. And you'd found even MORE that would suggest that Light and Breath players would work together.

The only real problem was that you'd found most of it in kismesis.

Kismesis seemed to be a generally frightening concept, wherein a relationship would begin mostly through a process of hatred, and generally resulted in sexual activity with someone you loathed entirely.

You fucking HATE the idea of being in a relationship with Skye based on hatred. You really do care about her, and you want her to like you for who you are, and not hate you in the slightest.

But then Lara fucked everything up again, and you had finally had your chance.

You assumed that using her powers, she "healed the timeline" (whatever that fucking means) and changed it to where she assumed that Skye wouldn't play SBURB with her. As it turns out, Lara made a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad decision. She instead made it seem like she was alienating Skye, and so Skye had turned to you for comfort.

And that was when you made your first move.

And you were happy.

You still remember the previous timeline, for reasons that you're not really sure of, so the betrayal that Skye's brought onto you only serves to make you more pissed off. Your head is spinning as you grab onto Skye's arm and pull her up from where she'd fallen, trying to run away from you. "What the hell was that?!" you yell, your voice a mix of anger and sadness.

The Witch blinks and answers, "It was me figuring out what really happened, and I know who you really are, Gabe. You're a manipulative, lying, backstabbing asshole that only cares about yourself. Why couldn't you have been a better person to Lara? She was really hurt by how rude you were to her after we started dating, Gabe. You really made her upset."

"I don't give a bloody FUCK about Lara right now, Skye! I could honestly care less about her. What I don't like is you cheating on me!"

Skye rolls her eyes. "Oh, shut up. I didn't fucking kiss her. And I DIDN'T cheat on you, technically. Because me and Lara haven't committed to a relationship in this timeline. So quit your angsty bullshit right now."

"Don't you get it? Just you TALKING to her is basically cheating on me! SHE'S the one who's a manipulative, lying, backstabbing asshole! You don't understand, Skye! I love you! I really do!"

She rolls her eyes AGAIN, this time, exaggerating it even more than the last. "Spare me. You don't give a shit about me. You're a textbook sociopath, Gabe! I mean, seriously! It's fucking frightening to see you sometimes!"

You want to scream. Why isn't Skye understanding this?

Whatever.

You didn't love her enough not to want to kill her.

So you start to reach for a branch that you found lying on the ground. It looks fairly sharp, and you don't really see any reason why it WOULDN'T be able to pierce through somebody if enough strength was put behind it.

When suddenly, you feel Skye's hands on your neck, putting intense pressure. "Put the fucking stick down before I snap your neck."

The fear creeps up on you slowly, but surely, and you comply with her demands. You then put up your hands in an attempt at surrender. You don't want her to kill you.

She smirks. "Good boy. Now... play dead."

The last thing you feel is a sharp pain in your neck as it twists 180 degrees.


	10. Thief of Mind

You are the Thief of Mind, and you're TAKING over everything.

After all, a MIND is a terrible thing to waste.

You're definitely stepping up your pun game, at the very least. If you hadn't gotten in this situation, you FOR SURE wouldn't be coming up with zingers like that. You're grateful for the murder arena for this opportunity.

So far you've recruited 5 people - the Sylph of Heart, the Maid of Rage, the Heir of Breath, the Page of Life, and the Rogue of Time. And you're looking to see if a Witch of Doom is in the cards.

"It's about damn time you finally came back," you mutter as the Maid returns. "I was worried that you weren't going to make it, Cleo."

The Maid gives a half-hearted groan in response. You suppose that you should restore her mind back to her in order to get anything more coherent, but a half-hearted groan will suffice for now. "Good work so far. Your powers are quite useful. Now, please, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to find out more about this Witch of Doom."

Cleo gives another groan, this one sounding more angry than anything, and you're taken aback, a bit.

"Now, now, this is no time to be difficult." You pet the top of her head. "Listen, I know that you might not want to, but don't forget, darling...

"I could kill you within mere seconds."

Her eyes grow wide and you give her the biggest smirk you've ever managed. You love being powerful. Having this kind of influence over others is quite possibly the best feeling in the world.

You've stolen her free will. You've manipulated her into being something that she isn't. You're actually really proud of yourself. That, and you can practically feel the radiation of black seeping off of her human stench. It's delicious, really, seeing her tense up like that.

She takes in a gulp and then furrows her brow. "Alright, what do you want from me still, Nehasi?" she asks, her eyes darting around the scenery around you in fear.

You shrug. "Not much. Cleo Douglas, you are one of the most fascinating minds that I've ever controlled. I have a little proposition for you. Here it is -- if you stay on my team, we can rule together. You and me. Killing every single human and troll out there until we're the only two remaining. And then, we simply refuse to kill one another, and we create Utopia, just the two of us, the king and queen of everything and nothing at all." You give her a toothy grin. "That is, if you're willing to stay alive."

She bites her bottom lip. "T... the offer is actually tempting," she says, her voice wobbling, making it unclear if she truly means what she's saying or if she's merely going along with what you're saying in order to keep you complacent for the time being. "But... I can't make a decision right now. Can we wait a little bit?"

You shake your head, tsking at her all the while. "Don't you see, Cleo? There isn't the time. Either one of us could die right here, right now, and never be one the wiser as to what could have been. It's a simple yes or no question, darling. I need to know if you want to stay alive."

Cleo pauses, and she looks sickly, a light green tinting her skin as though she were a cartoon figure about to throw up. "W... When you phrase it like that..." she says, and you smile.

You know what's coming next. After all, you have bent her free will, and you are now in control of her being.

She nods, and leans forward to kiss you, your teeth clashing against each other as you hold her tightly and she has a devilish grin plastered across her features. Her heart is beating fast -- you can tell because your hand is currently where her human heartbeat is centered. You continue to kiss her, her intoxicating aura captivating you, and she keeps scratching at you, trying to be mad, but she just can't. You're almost certain that you saw her draw some of your bronze blood. What a damn shame.

Once you pull away from her, wiping the residue of her kiss away from your lips, you put your hand up to your cheek. When it returns to your field of vision, surely enough, there is bronze colored liquid coating your fingers. You pout. "This is a goddamn tragedy, huh, darling?" you ask.

Cleo shakes her head, now finally out of your control for the current time being. "What the fuck do you MEAN?" she asks, voice trembling with fear and confusion.

You grab hold of her waist and shake her. "Don't act like you don't know what you just did, Cleo!"

And the more you shake her, the more she stops resisting, and suddenly, you've pushed her down and she's hit her head on a rock and she's bleeding and then she's dead.

Well, you suppose it's time to go look for a new kismesis, huh?


End file.
